More than 97 percent of the two tranches of subsidies intended for workers of small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) has been released, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement yesterday.
“As of June 11, around a month after the application deadline, payouts for both tranches of the program are at a combined 97.4-percent completion rate,” Antonio Joselito Lambino, DOF assistant secretary and spokesperson, said.
“For the first tranche, 3.05 million, or 98.8 percent of the 3.09 million qualified beneficiaries have their small business wage subsidy (SBWS) ready for withdrawal from their bank or PayMaya accounts or for pick up from MLhuillier Kwarta Padala outlets,” he added.
Lambino said the remaining employees, accounting for around 40,000, are awaiting confirmation or requiring correction of their bank account numbers or cellphone numbers (for those who chose to receive their subsidy through PayMaya or MLhuillier).
“For the second tranche, 2.96 million, or 97.4 percent of beneficiaries, have their SBWS ready for withdrawal or pickup,” Lambino said.
This means that more than P44 billion-worth of subsidies for two months have been credited directly to the SBWS program’s intended beneficiaries in less than two months, he added.
The SBWS program is largely automated and digital, with manual processing kept to a minimum.
Each qualified worker is entitled to receive P5,000 to 8,000 monthly for two months under this SBWS program.
The SBWS supports qualified employees of small businesses who did not get paid for at least two months due to the work stoppages resulting from the enhanced community quarantine and other containment measures imposed by the national and local governments since mid-March to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.
“Taking advantage of available technologies, cloud computing, and the electronic databases of Social Security System and Bureau of Internal Revenue, the implementing agencies have been able to accurately target intended beneficiaries and quickly distribute the subsidy to millions of employees with zero face-to-face contact between the beneficiaries and government,” Lambino said.
Harnessing technology as well is the Bureau of Customs (BOC) which signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Bureau of Treasury, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and PayMaya for the implementation of an online payment system for the collection, transmittal and remittance of BOC fees and other payments.
The BOC said in a statement yesterday that under the MOA signed last June 11, PayMaya shall accept payments from BOC clients of miscellaneous fees and charges, other than customs duties and taxes.
The agreement also covers the payment of client service fees specified under the MOA, as well as the arrangement of depositing the collected BOC fees and other payments to the DBP.
Republic Act (RA) No. 8792, also known as the “E-Commerce Act of 2000” and RA 11032, or the “Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Services Delivery Act of 2018” mandates all government offices and agencies to improve transactions systems and procedures, thus the BOC said it entered into the MOA to streamline its cash transactions.
Meanwhile the BOC ensures the public that it will continue to adopt measures necessary to facilitate and minimize disruption to the supply chain amid the crisis.